


Two Years

by glitch_writes



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Brief NSFW marked for easy skipping, Discussion of Death, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Sex, These tags seem heavy, but it's lighthearted I promise, oh and ofc there's:
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-29
Updated: 2018-03-29
Packaged: 2019-04-14 07:53:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14131551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glitch_writes/pseuds/glitch_writes
Summary: Ryuu proposes - and makes Chikara wait two years to give him his answer.(Takes place after "Connected".)





	Two Years

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Connected](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7485927) by [glitch_writes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/glitch_writes/pseuds/glitch_writes). 



> Seeing as this takes place after ["Connected"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7485927/chapters/17013807), I highly advise against reading this unless you've read that, because this story will likely make little to no sense otherwise. 
> 
> **NSFW takes place betwee "+++" and "- - -".** To skip it, skip to "- - -".

“So… I was thinking. ‘Bout... stuff.”

“Bit of a broad topic. Care to narrow it down for me?”

The captain’s quarters was their sanctuary. It was their retreat, the eye of the storm that was their lives. It had more than Chikara could ever confess he needed - a bed, Ryuu, and a window to watch the stars as he drifted off to sleep in Ryuu’s arms, just as they drifted through the endless sky.

Hesitation stuttered Ryuu’s step. He knelt on the bed over the covers to scoot beside Chikara. “Just, you know. Future stuff.”

Chikara set the datapad fueling his headache on the nightstand. “Is something bothering you?”

“Nah. I was just wondering if… ” Ryuu chewed on the corner of his lip as he met Chikara’s eyes. Three years, and Ryuu’s eyes still had a power over Chikara, a spell to steal his breath away. “If- If you’d- Wait, gimme a sec.” Ryuu squeezed his eyes shut and inhaled sharply, muttering something under his breath that Chikara couldn’t catch, but it wasn’t a mystery to him that it was some sort of (probably ridiculous) peptalk. 

Chikara blinked at him. “Why are you nervous?” 

“I’m not- I’m good. I’m good!” With renewed determination, Ryuu met Chikara’s eyes again. “I- You- Hold on.” 

Ryuu shuffled through his pocket before pulling out a small, black box. “Marry me?” he blurted as he opened it.

The ring was simple, silver, and better than Chikara had ever dared to dream. “Of cour-”

“Wait!” Ryuu’s finger darted out to cover Chikara’s lips. “Two years!”

“Hm?!” Chikara mumbled behind Ryuu’s finger.

“I’m giving ya two years to think about it.” Ryuu’s gaze fell to Chikara’s lips, tracing the bottom one with his fingertip. “I know how the whole ‘commitment’ thing makes you freak out-”

“Ryuu.” Chikara curled his fingers around Ryuu’s hand to pull it away. “That was years ago,” he began softly, cupping Ryuu’s cheek with his other hand. “I didn’t know you were still upset-”

“I’m not.” Ryuu pressed his forehead against Chikara’s and closed his eyes. “I’m past that. I’m good. And I’m damn sure you’ll still be here and ready to gimme your answer in two years.”

“If you’re so certain, then why wait? Let’s-” 

“Nope.” Ryuu stole a kiss, as swift as his refusal but as soft as his words. “This is for both of us. So we both know you got no regrets.”

There was a wisdom to Ryuu’s words, Chikara had to begrudgingly admit. Peace of mind at the small cost of some time, but what was a few years at the promise of happily ever after? “Fine. Two years,” Chikara agreed with an impatient sigh. “...Your going to enjoy my suffering until then, aren’t you?”

The corner of Ryuu’s lips quirked up. “Who, me? No, never.”

* * *

Three and a half years of putting his life on the line on a weekly basis had hardened Chikara’s sense of fear. After all the bullets, all the armed droids, and all the meetings with Futakuchi, there was little that could get his heart racing hard enough to send Ryuu running to him in concern.

The inked needle near his printless palm was one of such few horrors.

Saeko held his wrist firmly. “Oi, stop shaking. I promise it’s not gonna hurt.”

It wasn’t the pain he feared. He’d gone so long with no marks - no scars, no prints, nothing. He was like the hardcover notebook he bought himself as a teen; so scared to tarnish it, it was left blank. Left to collect dust on his bookshelf before he set his room aflame to erase his identity, before he removed his fingerprints, leaving a blank canvas of a man. 

Ryuu held his other hand, intertwining their fingers. A calming touch, like the first time they held hands in the hospital room. What was it that Kozume had said, ‘pressure provides comfort’? “You don’t gotta do this,” Ryuu reassured him.

“I’m okay.” Chikara took a deep breath, holding it to a count of four, and exhaling at the same time. “I’m okay,” he repeated, calmer. “I want this.” He wanted to take this first step - this proof that he was ready to be a person, and no longer the ghost that left no trace of his existence. He was ready to have his own unique marks, to paint the blank canvas with his own memories. 

“Did I ever tell you ‘bout Ryuu’s first tattoo?” Saeko began as she pressed the needle to Chikara’s skin.

It took all his strength not to flinch away. As Saeko promised - a promise he swore was empty - it didn’t hurt. It felt like he was scratching his skin, no worse than a bug bite. 

It was terrifying, how easy it was, and how there was no turning back. 

“He cried so hard,” Saeko continued, her eyes glued to the stenciled crow silhouette on Chikara’s palm. “Your boy there is a big baby.” 

“Liar! I had wind in my eyes, that’s it!”

“Uh huh.” 

Chikara watched the needle with fascination as their banter continued. There it was. There was his first step, there was his something new. There was his proof he was there to stay. 

For as long as he lived, he’d be there, by Ryuu’s side. 

The banter lulled after Saeko’s story, fading into Saeko’s hums along with her music, a calm that settled over the tattoo shop and Chikara’s racing thoughts alike, leaving his mind to drift to thoughts of his future in Ryuu’s arms.

“Marry me?” he whispered, half distracted, an afterthought of his favorite daydream since that night six months ago.

Ryuu squeezed his hand. “In a year and a half.”

“You’re really going to make me wait, huh?”

“Damn right.”

Saeko’s needle stopped. “Did you just turn down a proposal?!”

“No! Yes, sorta! Only kinda!”

“Am I gonna have to kick your ass? Cause I will! Just give the word, Chikara, and I’ll kick him halfway across space!”

In a year and a half, he’d have a sister. That alone would be worth the wait, he decided as he looked down at the inked crow she blessed him with that meant so much more than she could possibly know.

* * *

**+++**

Chikara’s legs wrapped tightly around Ryuu’s waist began to quiver, his climax growing closer, the pleasure only Ryuu could grace him with threatening to boil over.

Of all his past affairs, between the one night stands and the crush that should have never been, none of them could compare to the way Ryuu made him feel in their bed. Nothing between them, as close as he could be to Ryuu, to be inside him or have him inside. 

He was lucky, so lucky, overwhelmed with wonder that out of the billions of people across the galaxy, he was one to be Connected to Ryuu, to spend his nights in Ryuu’s arms, making love until sleep took them.

“Ryuu,” Chikara panted, gasping with delight when Ryuu thrust again, sending him closer and closer to the edge. He needed it, needed Ryuu, needed to spend his nights like this for the rest of his life. “Ryuu, marry me,” he moaned, “marry me, ah, please, I need you.”

Ryuu moaned low, thrusting again, his own orgasm close enough to make his body tremble. “Yeah, yeah- A year.” He thrust again. “One more year.”

Chikara threw his head back as the first pulse of his climax struck, a wave of Ryuu, Ryuu, Ryuu taking him over. He was Ryuu’s, always would be, and in a year, he could promise Ryuu a happily ever after.

**\- - -**

* * *

They made it out of the fight by the skin of their teeth. 

In Chikara’s case, quite literally.

“Oi. Don’t pick.”

“I’m not.” Chikara ran his fingertip over the medigel stitching on his lower lip. He did want scars of his own, he thought with a sigh of defeat, recalling the memory of admiring the scars that painted Ryuu’s body during their first shower together. “It feels strange.”

“That’s right. This is your first time getting more than bruises, huh?” Ryuu sat on the edge of the med bay cot beside him. “...Been a while since you sprained your ankle,” he continued with a playful smirk.

“I’m getting better at avoiding getting thrown across room despite being invisible,” Chikara smiled back, delighting in Ryuu’s bark of laughter.

The last fight was close. Too close. Ryuu got out with only a scratch on his cheek. But if that hit he took was angled even a centimeter more...

One of them - or more likely, both of them - were going to take their last breaths during a mission someday. It was a likely truth that Chikara had accepted when he turned himself back in those four or so years ago. A small price to pay for the good they did, he’d come to believe wholeheartedly, even if they never got to see the results of their labors. So rarely did they see the survivors, or the colonists spared thanks to their timely arrivals, only getting updates through datapads and the occasional personal call from Dr. Nakashima. 

They could have two decades before their final mission. They could have two weeks. They wouldn’t know until it was too late.

“Ryuu.” Chikara absently tapped on the lip, admiring the numbness over the cut that he was sure he’d regret when it was sore in the morning. “Marry me. While we still can.”

“Hm. You got…” Ryuu pulled his phone from his pocket to look at the scratched screen. He refused to replace ‘the first phone we got together!’. Probably for the better; no doubt he’d scratch up the screen on the next phone, too. “‘Bout eight months left.”

“What if we don’t have eight months?” Chikara hummed, casual in his question despite the severity. He couldn’t find it in him to let it trouble him anymore, not when he’d accepted that he was content with his place in the grand scheme of the universe. 

There was also that part where Ryuu refused to die, no matter what life threw at him - an attitude Chikara had adopted.

Ryuu shrugged with the same nonchalance, the same acceptance. “Then we spent the rest of our lives together anyway, right?” 

Chikara snorted. “You’re stubborn.”

Ryuu grinned, that playful grin that Chikara could never get enough of, even when it promised trouble. “It’s part of my charm.”

Chikara would never admit that his stubbornness was one of the countless parts of Ryuu’s charm that he loved. He loved all of him, from his charms to his flaws. Ryuu still drove him crazy, just as he was sure the wait to call him his husband would drive him crazy.

* * *

After two years, Chikara refused to wait a minute longer.

He crawled over Ryuu on the bed, nuzzling his nose against his sleeping boyfriend’s neck. “Ryuu. Wake up.” 

“Hm, what?” Ryuu struggled to blink the sleep from his eyes as he looked over at the alarm clock, pulling an arm out from under the blanket to wrap it around Chikara. “What’s going on? It’s midnight.”

Chikara held up a small, black box, tilting it so Ryuu could see the golden ring inside. “Marry me.”

Ryuu blinked between Chikara and the ring, before flashing him a sleepy grin. “Gimme some time to think about it.”

“Jerk,” Chikara laughed. 

Ryuu wrapped his other arm around Chikara to hold him tightly. “‘Course I’ll marry ya.” 

Chikara placed his lips on Ryuu’s, slow and sweet. “I’ve called Saeko and Daichi-san. They’ll be here in the morning.”

Ryuu snorted. “Impatient bastard.” 

“Go back to sleep. You have the rest of our lives to tease me.”

Ryuu kissed Chikara’s brow. “I like the sound of that.”

**Author's Note:**

> "Connected" is still dear to my heart, a firmly establish part of my soul. I can never thank everyone who read it enough for their support. I hope you enjoyed it, and this story as well. 
> 
> I have a writing blog now: [glitch-writes](https://glitch-writes.tumblr.com/)
> 
> _So just breath_  
>  Breath in, breath deep, you know that's all you need  
> I can't describe your eyes, but they're as blue as the sea  
> Your heart, it beats, in perfect time with me  
> \- [Jacob Lee - "Chariot"](https://youtu.be/Ysh2zd-42pI)


End file.
